This invention relates to gaming machines such as slot machines and video poker machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for implementing a downloadable software system for an electronic gaming machine communications network.
In general, conventional gaming machine networks typically include a central system operatively connected to one or more individual gaming machines via intermediate communication site controllers. Although the gaming machines communicate with the central system, each gaming machine or site controller contains a central chipset which locally stores the computer code to be is executed by the device to perform gaming related functions. These chipsets typically include electronic programmable read only memory (EPROM) which permanently store the computer code. EPROM chipsets are conventionally preferred because the electronic memory can be controlled in a secured manner without giving unauthorized access to the gaming machine code. Additionally, in many conventional gaming machine implementations, the gaming machine file systems have been designed and signed to meet stringent authentication and other security requirements. As a result, such file systems are typically implemented as fixed, read-only file systems. There is typically no need for implementing any type of file system management component (e.g., during initialization and/or run-time) for such file systems.
While such gaming machine implementations may provide one approach for minimizing security risks, such implementations do not offer flexibility with regard to configuring or reconfiguring gaming machine code. For example, in the event the gaming machine software code needs to be upgraded, service personnel are required to manually change the chipset for each gaming machine and/or site controller.
Because a service technician must perform the same operation for each machine or controller, the current method of updating gaming machine/site controller or gaming machine software typically takes a long time to accomplish at a substantial cost, including the cost of the technician time and the cost of a new chipset for each machine.
In light of the above, it will be appreciated that there exist a need for improving conventional techniques for dynamically updating or modifying gaming machine components.